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Bettina Network Lifestyle Community – Join us!

Monday, August 22nd, 2022
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Many people are saying “These are hard times in these United States”! But are they really? Many minorities would tell you this is nothing except the hard times they have experienced for generations being made public for all to see and to share in the horribleness of what humans are like when we try to be “better than.”.

What now?

Bettina Network, inc. has established a Community – not a Cult – which allows and encourages you to reach out beyond your comfort zone while you are doing those things you have to do to survive – like work. Reach out when you go on vacation. Reach out when you just want some time away.

But how? How to expand your friendships beyond the normal boundaries we all experience. How to help others in the process of just living and doing. How to experience diversity without going through unnatural changes. And so much more.

You can do this through joining Bettina Network Lifestyle Community.

Not everyone who applies to join is accepted, but our criteria is not the normal kind. We are not trying to create a community of like minded, like lived people, same faith, same everything people.

We have had many valued guests staying in our bed & breakfasts over the past 35 years we have been in business.  COVID  19 turned our business upside down and we had to think long and hard about where do we go from here.

Along the way, during those 35 years, we added Bettina Network Foundation, inc.  Through that experience we discovered there can be no separation between our commercial selves and our responsibility to work towards a much more giving, loving, gracious society. 

We decided to work through Bettina Network Lifestyle Community.  A group of people who are always open to and looking for human experiences with the goal of adding diversity, wisdom, learning while going about their ordinary daily life and business and so much more.

We still have homes open for you to make reservations as you travel, but we will only take reservations from those who are members of Bettina Network Lifestyle Community.  In other words, we have become a closed community.

The world is not in shape where any and everyone can make reservations through an open system without taking risks. A computerized reservation service open to everyone to stay in homes that have not been thoroughly checked and where you arrive to find a key under the mat (or its current equivalent) is no longer workable. 

We also only take homes where people are living in the home and have a talent, interest, doing research, art, music, public affairs and more which would add to your enjoyment and knowledge base once you have stayed in one of our homes. 

If you are not already a member of Bettina Network Lifestyle Community, we invite you to call us and become one of those who cares about where you stay when traveling and who enjoys finding those little nuggets of wisdom from others who have found the answer to what you might still be searching and so much more.

We are always searching for knowledge, wisdom and a greater understanding of the world and want to pass that along to you as you pass your experiences along to us.  We have combined it all in the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community and hope you will join us.

Rob Porter – Nazi Royalty?

Wednesday, September 4th, 2019

We have watched the arriving and leavings of Trump Administrative people and many conjecture as to why there is such a turnover. Mostly, the upheaval and ugliness of working at the White House for Donald Trump is cited. What is either glossed over or ignored are the dynamics that must be playing out when many of the people so involved and appointed by the Donald have a hate philosophy and political ideology to which they adhere.

We knew Rob Porter when he was a very small boy. Active, energetic, and into everything. He came to visit his grandparents. These grandparents were not publicly acknowledged as such but they were the people from whom came his mother. His grandmother was from Germany and spent several years in Austria when her father was Ambassador from Nazi Germany representing the Hitler regime. His grandfather was high up in that regime.

They came to visit from Argentina and went back and forth. From Argentina to the United States – always to visit their “daughter’ and her family.

In-between times the “family” met up in Europe or wherever Rob Porter’s mother was traveling to so they could spend quality time together and so Rob Porter and his siblings could get to know and stay in contact with their “real grandparents”.

When we were introduced the grandparents had Spanish names and spoke the language of Argentina. After a couple visits that dropped and they began to call each other by their real names. Something they clearly only did when alone or with friends.

Like many, they had a family secret, which little by little began to come out. Rob’s grandmother and grandfather had to flee Germany when the Nazi’s lost power and they fled to Argentina. His grandmother had a very small child – a baby – who she did not want to grow up with the stigma of being a Nazi, even though a very prominent one so Rob’s grandmother gave her baby daughter to a very close friend and took a step back. That must have been a profoundly painful thing to do because as we saw her – in spite of her Nazi training and leanings – her humanity and love towards her daughter was clear to see.

She talked about giving her daughter away with the expectation of not seeing her or her daughter ever knowing her mother, but as things turned out, they spent quite a bit of time together. They stayed with us often until the grandfather died of brain cancer. He came to the United States several times for treatment and we understand, after his death, his wife moved to the United States to be close to her family.

When I heard Rob Porter had a job which was so close to Donald Trump and he would know everything that happened in the White House, my blood ran cold. Why? Because we had many conversations with his grandparents and he was clearly exposed to a strong Nazi doctrine from a small child.

We had many conversations which ranged over the universe. His grandmother was very gracious and seldom engaged in anything other than talk on a general and surface level. His grandfather was taken with me and not in a positive way so in spite of trying to keep the conversations on a surface level he often let loose with his politics. The strongest of his comments which started such conversations came when I was holding forth, as is normal for me, on topics which run deep and not always positive towards how things work in the U. S. At first he was interested to know about the life of an African American in the U. S. After a few minutes, however, he always interjected as to how grateful I should be just to be allowed to exist in this country.

What made my blood run cold when I heard of Rob Porter’s job next to Donald Trump, working so closely and knowing so much about the inner workings of these United States, came from all that I knew about the political input that went on during his growing up years – from having seen how much he adored and how much time he spent with his grandparents who were definitely Nazi Royalty – and as time passed and people like Stephen Miller and all the rest began to surface, what I saw was a young man surrounded by those like him in an administration that reeked with Nazi influencers carrying out their basic philosophical and political beliefs, attempting to change this country to one in which they would be much more comfortable because the minorities of the world would either not exist or be kept in their place where they would be grateful just to be allowed to work for those who, following the Nazi Doctrine, were believed to be genealogically, intellectually, spiritually, and in their skin and hair color and texture the “chosen” few of this world.

Add to that a knowledge of Donald Trump as having spent his young adult years with his first wife and young children, having a copy of “Mein Kempf” next to his bedside and reading it every night the way most people read the bible and you have a lens through which to look at this administration which says it will spread evil such as this world has never seen before.

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IT COSTS MONEY TO PRODUCE THIS BLOG. WE HOPE YOU WILL CONTRIBUTE SO WE CAN EXPAND AND CONTINUE THE RESEARCH AND WRITINGS WHICH KEEP YOU KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT MANY THINGS THAT WOULD NOT REACH YOU OTHERWISE ALONG WITH THE OPINIONS AND WORK OF THOSE WHO ARE MEMBERS OF BETTINA NETWORK’s LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY.

What follows are some of the ways you can support our work:

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

*This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

Project 4 – Boycott the Twenty Dollar ($20) bill

You can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check out to “Bettina Network, inc.” since the blog income is not the foundation income.

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net







Real Estate Taxes/Collusion/Graft

Thursday, August 29th, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

It never ceases to amaze me how many people are willing to take part in an obvious rip-off of others with those “others” including themselves and they do this for nothing – mostly not even realizing the rip-off. How many “good” people are willing to ‘go along to get along’ turning their backs to the suffering of others caused by their ‘head in the sand’ attitude towards life.

Real estate taxes is one of those areas. A collusion between the banks and the government entity levying the taxes.

Take a close, clear look at what that is all about.

Many government entities, which have decided to charge real estate taxes to those within their boundaries join the corporate and financial mafia which is totally ripping off the average citizen, daily, and these government entities contribute their share in that kind of enterprise. They join in making the banks overfed, arrogant and with an attitude that the banks rule.

How does that happen?The right to collect real estate taxes is declared and the reasons and areas which will benefit are also outlined. Those having to pay the taxes are in general agreement because they see the benefit to themselves and their generations to come.

And then things go off the rail. What enters is graft, theft, rip-offs, greed, power and much more.

How could something which started off as a benefit become such a tool to the grifters and others who insert themselves into the process? Think about who benefits before the real estate taxes you pay reach their destination. Very few people pay their real estate taxes to their government entity. Their taxes are collected by the banks. When they sign for the mortgage they are given a story which is clearly not true as to why the bank should pay the taxes. They are convinced that is the best way and their mortgage papers have a clause they have to sign – even under duress or they don’t get the mortgage – that the bank can take over paying their real estate taxes at any point the bank decides. That means many who start off paying their taxes directly to the government entity, in a short time receive notice from the bank that their mortgage amount is increased by the amount of real estate taxes and it must be paid at the same time their mortgage is due.

Real Estate Taxes have made the banks of America fat, overly arrogant, feeds them for free so they can do their thing in other areas ignoring their customers and much, much more. It is free money for six months. Money the banks knows will come in on a certain day and will remain for the next six months. The banks know that will continue for the life of the mortgage, which in some cases is 30 years. Billions and Billions of dollars free – from John and Jane Q. Public.

The public could put that money monthly into a savings account if they so decided and receive interest payments at the retail market rate. They could buy bonds which come due a few days before their real estate taxes and receive appreciation and interest. They could do a number of things with their own money and earn for themselves instead of giving that money to the bank to be held – for free. The banks are not charity organizations to whom you contribute because of the good humanitarian work they do.

Think of what a bank can do and is doing and has done around real estate taxes. The billions and billions they collect and use to up their bottom line comes from the hard earned money of John and Jane Q. Public who makes the money by hard work and gets zero return on his or her dollars because the bank’s evil geniuses have figured out how to set in place such a system and make it palatable to the general public. It is normal – is what we’ve heard. Everybody has to pay their taxes to the bank – we’ve also heard. And how does that make it right – we are asking?

Today you are required or convinced by the bank’s smooth talk to make mortgage payments to the bank which include your real estate taxes. The bank’s requirement is that you make these tax payments to them six months in advance. The bank holds that money – can use it anyway they choose – and for six months they have money in the billions on which they don’t pay anything to the people whose money they are holding. Banks have billions of dollars they can use – free – to do whatever they choose and they don’t have to answer to anyone for the money nor pay interest nor anything else on those real estate taxes which they hold for fully six months.

If you have a 30 year mortgage, the bank knows that for the next 30 years they have your money to use for free for six months ongoing for the next 30 years.

And then come the games.

Foreclosure and default are very lucrative for banks. If you pay your mortgage plus interest in full and do not pay your real estate taxes to the bank you are found in default for money owed to no one. but which the bank has declared a part of the repayment of your mortgage and they hold that you are in default or foreclosure because the real estate taxes you do not owe have not been paid.

We have been contacted by people who are in default on their mortgage and some who are in foreclosure. Those in default have had massive fees added to the mortgage amounts in spite of the fact that their mortgages were paid in full and on time. For three months they did not include the real estate taxes because they figured out the game the banks were playing and refused to go along. They contacted the bank and said they were going to pay their real estate taxes directly to the government entity and the bank said no. That is not possible. If you don’t pay directly to us and if you don’t pay six months in advance of when the amount is due you will be held in default after three months of not making those real estate tax payments to the bank.

They have tried to send money each month to the government entity – which was fine, but because it was not in the bank, they were found in default by the bank when, in fact, there were no monies due because the government entity had been paid.

So, in spite of their mortgage having been paid in full and on time – and their real estate taxes having been paid six months in advance of their being due, but directly to the government entity instead of to the bank, the bank put them into default and a couple such people we knew about into foreclosure for not paying monies they didn’t owe. The problem was resolved, but with the bank keeping the many fees charged because the mortgage had been declared in default and with the other family, the fees kept because the mortgage was in foreclosure.

The bank, knowing the real estate taxes were paid in full ignored that and paid the government entity the real estate taxes in full. In another case, the bank overpaid the taxes because they needed the extra few thousand dollars they overpaid to throw the family into default on their mortgage. In another case, the bank paid other bills, which they had no right to pay, but which they did anyway causing the family untold problems to work through and all of that with attorneys – causing the family to expend even more money. Is that fear and intimidation?

One such person had an agreement with their bank that they would pay their own real estate taxes. After several months of going along with that, the bank notified the person that their real estate taxes needed to be escrowed in addition to paying the mortgage. They refused because they had a different agreement going into the mortgage – the mortgage was paid on time and the real estate taxes also. The family put real estate tax monies into bonds which matured in six month increments so they could use that money to pay the government entity. That didn’t matter, the bank wanted the money to use for its own purposes, for free and demanded that their mortgage holders pay their real estate taxes directly to the bank or face foreclosure.

Did you know the bank can attempt to foreclose on your property even if your mortgage plus interest is paid before its due date and in full?

Into this money game – enter the government entity collecting the real estate taxes. They have several games they play in collusion with the banks.

  1. They go along with the banks demanding that the real estate taxes be paid six months in advance and the money held by the bank – without recompense to the mortgage holder. And, on one account we saw where the mortgage holder paid an average of $5,000 to the city for real estate taxes over six months, that mortgage holder’s bank was one of the more generous banks paying them $.31 interest on their $5,000 for six months.
  2. Enter the elderly. Many government entities have passed laws which say those over 65 – although some say those over 75 – may defer their taxes on their property until either they die or sell the house. The interest on such ranges from 3% to about 7% depending upon the amount of interest so stipulated by the particular government entity.
  3. Enter the games against the elderly. Some government entities on their admin side don’t want that, but it was passed anyway. So the admins and their managements have found a way to by-pass this. They make sure to discombobulate, to dissemble, to refuse to accept the applications from the elderly for such deferrals. Many we have encountered are very good at this pushing away and not accepting applications yet claiming the applications were not complete, not offered, not submitted, etc.
  4. If that doesn’t work and the elderly person is particularly good at dealing with bureaucracies what then comes into play is the collusion between the banks and the government entities. The government agrees that the application is complete, good, passed on positively and the elderly person sends it to their bank holding their mortgage and the bank refuses to honor the deferral.

5. Given the fact that the bank should not be able to dishonor such an application, especially if the equity is substantial enough to insure the taxes will be paid upon the person’s death or sale of the property – the bank refuses to accept the deferral and does not have to give a reason. Just a blanket refusal. We call that bank-greed and elder-abuse.

6. We call it bank-greed because we have tracked down a few such instances and have found that there will be people in the bank with their eyes on a particular property where the elderly owners are going through this process and they want to buy the house, but not at the retail price which everyone else has to pay. With machinations, the elderly person is, in effect, swindled out of their property and the city or bank person goes away happily owning a new piece of property or have passed it on to someone who gives them a kick back.

7. The rub from all of this is that the elderly person will generally wind up without their property living in subsidized elderly housing and the person paying that bill is John Q. Public who was swindled by the banks and the government entities in the first place in this real estate tax dealing. So that swindle comes around again and payment is extracted again from the tax paying public.

There is a whole lot more to this than the above and we encourage you to send us information from your experiences. We will continue to write about it in installments so that you can see how banks, taxes, mortgages, government entities work hand and glove in ways we feel are illegal, but they feel as their right against those working hard to put bread on their tables and keep their heads above water let alone attempting to do anything more that they deserve because of their hard work over a lifetime.

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IT COSTS MONEY TO PRODUCE THIS BLOG. WE HOPE YOU WILL CONTRIBUTE SO WE CAN EXPAND AND CONTINUE THE RESEARCH AND WRITINGS WHICH KEEP YOU KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT MANY THINGS THAT WOULD NOT REACH YOU OTHERWISE ALONG WITH THE OPINIONS AND WORK OF THOSE WHO ARE MEMBERS OF BETTINA NETWORK’s LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY.

What follows are some of the ways you can support our work:

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

*This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

Project 4 – Boycott the Twenty Dollar ($20) bill

You can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check out to “Bettina Network, inc.” since the blog income is not the foundation income.

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net





Tiger Woods – No Surprise!

Tuesday, May 7th, 2019

We received little notes from Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Members about the award Donald Trump bestowed upon Tiger Woods.

Several expressed surprise that Tiger Woods accepted the award – given the stand many African American and even mixed race African American sports figures have taken. So why is Tiger Woods standing there grinning and proud?

We didn’t understand the surprise of some of our readers and contributors because – “birds of a feather”.

That should give you some idea of the common values Trump and Woods share. That kind of sexism, that disrespect for, that misuse and abuse of women crosses racial, national, and all other barriers.

Think back a bit. What do you know about Tiger Woods beyond his great talent in the golf game? Remember his ex-wife’s anger when she found out just how ‘outre’ he was with women? Remember the stories which surfaced in the media about how he ‘shacked up’ with multiple women after his golf tournaments and carried on multiple affairs while his wife took care of home and children? Remember all of the womanizing you heard and/or read about concerning how Tiger Woods lived his life? Does that remind you of anyone? Maybe the man putting the necklace (some call it the Medal of Freedom) around Tiger Woods?

Now who is surprised? We are, that so many of you are surprised and/or expected Tiger Woods to refuse the award on principled grounds. Expect him rather to ask ‘what’s that’ – principled grounds?

The surprise should be all of the media reports with no one mentioning that history – those connections between Woods and Trump – etc. Or have we become a society which accepts all of that as normal and those commonalities having nothing to do with why one is chosen? Who you are as a person needs to be the rock foundation from which other talents and accomplishments radiate.

Have we lost our way expecting awards such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom be given to someone who examplifies greatness in what they do as well as who they are and how they have lived their lives – as an example of someone who walks this earth who we would be proud to have our children emulate? A great talent is a wonderful gift. A life well lived is what we give back. An award such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom needs to be given to someone whose life embodies both the gift and what the giver returns to the society. At this point Tiger Woods has shown and cultivated his God given gift. He has given back, however, much that muddies the earth, confuses its children and supports the likes of a Donald Trump and his presidency. From looking at Tiger Woods’ children, imagine them crossing the border – or trying to cross the border from Mexico to the U. S. How do you think he would be treated by those carrying out the dictates and policies of the man putting that award around his neck. Do you think Tiger, having been asked the question would call for the bowl of water, soap and a towel? With the acceptance of that award from Donald Trump, Tiger Woods symbolically did just that.

https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-gives-tiger-woods-presidential-medal-of-freedom-2019-5

_______________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

You can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check out to “Bettina Network, inc.” since the blog income is not the foundation income.

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.co










A New Political and Economics Vocabulary!

Wednesday, April 24th, 2019

It sounds so foolish for people in the United States to be trying to frame this upcoming presidential election around old concepts which were relevant during the time of the Cold War but not today. When used, the concepts being thrown around in preparation for this upcoming 2020 campaign are confusing and the cause of much emotional upset and fighting because of what hangs onto the concepts from a difficult time in the life of this worlds’ political and economic institutions.

Instead of defining our economy in Cold War terms, the Republicans need to be more accurately descriptive of our institutions. We need to make the massive effort to increase our vocabulary with newer more accurate terms or we need to pull out a new vocabulary which fits where we are today – terms that fit what we are actually about. None of the terms the Republicans are using are accurate, fitting, nor descriptive.

The Democrats are going to run their 2020 campaign bringing forth corruption, lying, stealing and all of us will be very well acquainted with terms like “emoluments”. Terms we had probably either never heard of or heard in passing without giving a thought to going deeply into their meaning.

We talk in terms of Capitalism, Socialism, Communism. None of these terms come close to where we are today. Using those terms only exacerbates the ugliness and vileness we are experiencing as a country – brought on by our own.

Capitalism is totally irrelevant and has been for some time because basic to that concept is the assumption that everyone is free and equal in the society and are only limited by their vision, etc. We live in a society which is fraught with sexism, racism, homophobia, ethnocentrism, ageism and so much more of that which separates us and makes us feel better than or less than. A society in which my identify is better than your identity is not able to even begin to describe its economic and political system as based on Capitalism.

Our so called “capitalist” system has venture capitalists who only fund white male northern european types – and will fund minorities and women into the (maybe) $50,000 area to fund their start-ups and actively encourage others to tour the country looking for great start-up ideas being worked on by minorities so they can steal and bring those ideas and that work to the venture capitalists, who are more than ready to see those new and radical business ideas happening and being developed by minorities in this world being carried forward into their substantial billion dollar areas by white male types to maintain the societal structure with those at the top most like our current venture capitalist and other investor groups with serious money that they obtained in the same way. That “serious money” is not available for investment to minority groups. (and from here on “minorities” include women because that is who they are and how they are treated from a power and control perspective in this society.)

Socialism is fraught with many misinterpretations when used today. Most link it to state owned everything and gradually being the economic and political part of the structure of a state which becomes evil and destroys the quality of everybody’s life. In this “Socialism” we all become zombies beholden to a very ugly, vicious and violent state. And – the examples we come up with as to “Socialist States” are indeed horrifying if one thinks that is the direction in which these United States are headed, if we choose the model being proffered by these anti-socialism fighters.

Communism is the most misinterpreted because we hook that term to the Soviet Union at its worse. We hook it to the rampaging McCarthy who destroyed many lives and even more careers fighting phantoms, using a political and economic concept as a means to oppress those he wanted to expel from “his” country and the country which he felt belonged to him and his kind. All others were usurpers trying to turn this great democracy into something vile. Turned out the vileness came from McCarthy and his kind – and who was one of his protege’s – none other than Donald Trump. Trump learned his lessons well at the feet of McCarthy and Cohn and he has brought all of that upheaval and evil back into 2016, 17, 18, 19 America.

And, Communism carries with it the claim by many Christians, that the social and economic system of Jesus was a communist system. That complicates the picture even more as that kind of claim, while not accepted by most mainline Christians was accepted enough to increase the religious bigotry which has existed in these United States from its beginnings with its genoocidal war against Native Americans.

This election cycle is shaping up to be one in which the worst interpretation of the above terms is going to be used to win or lose. At the very least the fight for the presidency and other offices will be embroidered around hurling Socialism, Capitalism, Communism at the opposition as though they were evil and we should not elect anyone who espouses such.

As we look at the above, what becomes clear is that our current system was created, grown and sustained by white male mostly Northern European types who patterned their need for power and control after what they saw in the Middle – Near East – Far Eastern parts of the world which were also male dominated cultures interested in expanding and maintaining power and control in their own ways. Vestiges of those historical groups still exist and today are beginning to rise up to attempt to re-establish their historical societies which are counter to the ways they were beginning to move.

The strong roots such groups have in this society becomes clear as under Donald Trump we are making strong moves to bring those cultures together because it is the only way male domination in its meaness – viciousness – and need for total power and control can continue to thrive and grow.

A more diverse and integrated world is beginning to show-up. Hopefully, as that moves and grows the goodness, beauty and grace of the human spirit will flourish and what has gone before will be permanently in the rear view mirror and will maintain only in history.

Watching that diversity develop is a cautionary tale, however, because even in its extreme infancy we see in the United States powers beginning to move into male groups which were anathema when white males were at the height of their power and control and adopt and adapt these others into their society and culture because that is what is necessary for them to continue developing the mean spiritedness, viciousness, control, tyranny and ugliness of what we have and are continuing to experience.

Looking at the 2018 elections, we celebrated the break through of a new America. We praised our voting citizens for the diversity of people we elected and it looked as though we were reaching through to a new day.

As time goes on, however, we are seeing the sprouts of those weeds which caused and cause so much trouble and evil in the world as talk becomes prevalent of which “white males” can best be elected who will look out for and bring about a more equitable, diverse and “new” America. Which white male will best take care of the rest of the world in a patronizing and paternalistic fashion so that male domination can continue and in a short time raise its ugly head again to attempt to subjugate and push the world into finding its meanest spots to develop. And saddest of all of that talk are the women joining the chorus who are so enmeshed in paternalism they cannot see the worth and ability of other women who can do much better.

The fact that the talk happening is simply a new prelude to another chapter of the “old” slaveowning, segregationist, vile and vicious America has been covered up to be revealed upon the victory and ascendancy of this new talk.

Looking at the way “Bernie” helped to bring in Trump to maintain that old way of life without getting “dirty” in the process should tell us and let us see what is happening with this presidential campaign today. It should also show us that this new, kinder, gentler paternalism will not work.

Think on these things before you reject them out of hand. Look carefully at your government and its history America before you laud yourselves as being “better than” and pray hard that you do not continue in the ways from which you declared you wanted to depart to bring out more of the goodness of America.

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You can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check out to “Bettina Network, inc.” since the blog income is not the foundation income.

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.co







Harvard Square House for Sale

Friday, March 29th, 2019

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/49-Hawthorn-St-Cambridge-MA-02138/56438592_zpid/

Fantastic historical house built by well known architect, Lois Lily Howe, at the turn of the 19th century. Ms. Howe, along with three other women, developed the architectural firm of Howe, Almy and Manning. This house includes many innovations which Lois Lily Howe designed into the building. She was one of MIT’s first female graduates and developed several houses well known in the area for the care and exquisite design elements which she incorporated into them. She also designed and built homes in New Hampshire and New York.

Anna Freud (Daughter of Sigmund Freud) was a regular visitor and the psychiatric journal, which is still published, was developed in this house by Anna Freud and Lydia Dawes, among others. For quite some time – about 50 years – it was the center of the local psychiatric community because it was the home of Dr. Lydia Dawes, who planted a magnolia tree outside a window in the living room so those she worked with could lie on the couch and be soothed by the wonderful flowers as they talked. There is a dark spot on the floor in the music room – not such a positive, but part of its history – where Dr. Dawes dropped her daughters diapers until she could take care of them and over time they stained the floor.

Many local psychiatrists were trained in this house over the years by Dr. Dawes. One stayed with us for a couple weeks because he wanted to be able to have free access to see the entire house at his leisure. He had been limited to the living room the entire time he trained with Dr. Dawes and he needed to satisfy that unfulfilled curiousity in his life.

Huge Master Bedroom

1/2 Bathroom

The house was built for Dr. William Augustus Maynadier – who taught at the college – well where else but Harvard College. He taught Arthurian Legend (King Arthur and the round table) – probably why there is so much sexism in the country. Every Harvard man and only men attended Harvard at that time, had to take this class because it taught them how to properly treat women – they learned to treat women just like King Arthur and his boys treated the women of their day. We are still trying to overcome that bit of history which is a part of this house. It is very fitting that a strong feminist now resides there and has for the past 36 years, so you can consider that bit of sexist history expunged.

To know more – to see the house – call Marceline Donaldson 617 497 9166

More Bettina Members Comments!

Wednesday, March 20th, 2019

I was heartsick as I watched television news as the New Zealand massacre unfolded. I could not believe we were in that space once again.

I turned on television news to watch young people in their massive demonstration about Climate Change. What a disappointment. A fantastic huge demonstration of such dedicated youth and not one word or picture or anything about what was happening outside my window.

I remembered a couple things – when there was some news out there that Trump wanted to block he had ways to distract and block. Was the New Zealand massacre set up to distract these young people’s demonstration which Trump has worked hard to keep from surfacing? It would take something massive to keep those young people off the television news and it was found. Since the start of that demonstration I’ve seen nothing of the work and actions of thousands of young people – only the New Zealand massacre. Were Muslims used to distract from this powerful day of demonstrations?

The second thing I remembered was Trump asking someone he was interviewing if he would kill for him. The news commentator thought that was strange, but put it down to Trump’s “derangement.” That was either Trump’s “derangement” or Trump having blown past the ethics and morals which would have kept him from doing the Khashoggi thing to his joining his group of fascist, dictator ‘friends’ who he has shown he clearly admires and now has shown he can keep up with ‘mafia speak’ to cause murders in his realm?

My thoughts are constantly with the New Zealanders who had to endure the slaughter. I don’t know how I can help, but something will show itself and I will respond.

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This world has been created, managed and brought along by males. Some white, some pink, some yellow, some brown, some of many colors. All share lives on this planet which are mostly about satisfying their male egos’ and no matter how large or how small they are led first by sex and then all kinds of violence and everything else follows. It is time for a change. Even television shows are about sex and violence in one form or another and getting worse. There is so much more to life, but we don’t seem able to experience anything beyond various forms of sex and violence.

Life has so many other components, possibilities, excitements – isn’t it time for all of you out of control males to sit down, sit back and just stop the BS. It is time for another kind of world order to emerge – one which has caring for others its first concern; which puts others first; which is interested in building bridges not walls; which looks at business as a way of supplying what we all need not as a way to make billions so we can isolate ourselves and show the world our greatness which we gained at their expense?

We need to be a safe place for the poor to get out of poverty; to do everything we can to educate all of us; – and my writing this is so foolish. As you read it I can hear the comments – “a pipe dream, a romantic, an idealist, where did he come from”. It is so sad what we have done to this planet and it is getting worse. It was such a beautiful place – it is no longer.

Problem is, I don’t see any way out. There are too many Donald Trump’s in this world and more coming. We have so screwed ourselves with most of us just alive doing whatever until we die without any thought to the fact that we are all wasting the beauty of life because we have gone after weakness rather than strength and have redefined our values to satisfy our current existence instead of changing our current existence to be of good character. I doubt that we even know of what that consists.

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With New Zealand, has this administration taken its first steps into murder to be able to join the fascist nations developing very quickly around the globe? Did we have to prove our “manhood” and have done so with the “mafia speak” that brought about the New Zealand massacre?

It looks as though sex trafficking, pedophilia, the opioids – the new kind of drugs by prescription until addicted are all now in place and arms of this new mafia being created world wide with the United States president one of those doing the creating, promoting, managing. By tweet is a powerful way to create this kind of institutional structure.

________________________________________________________

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Or you can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check out to “Bettina Network, inc.” since the blog income is not the foundation income.

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.co


French Toast vs. Lost Bread

Monday, February 18th, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

As I turn to New Orleans, many things come back into focus. One is the breakfast phenom called “Lost Bread”. It has now probably become national – maybe even further – so I thought I would share two recipes with you which have geographical significance. French Toast I learned in the North – Lost Bread I grew up with in New Orleans. It is amazing how similar they are.

Lost Bread

In a mixing bowl whip together two eggs (organic), one cup organic turbinado sugar, enough organic milk to make a nice dipping sauce – but not too liquid/runny. If you want to use almond milk – coconut milk – or some other kind of liquid, enjoy!

Keep your bread until it is stale. If you don’t have time and/or throw away bread instead of keeping it for such things as Lost Bread or bread pudding, or for making bread crumbs when you have a minute, then put the new bread you want to use in the oven on a very low light – 250 degrees or 300 tops – until it has stiffened. And feel very ashamed if you actually throw away what some consider old stale bread. You could always sprinkle that stale bread with a bit of water, put it in the oven and ‘voila’ – you have freshly baked bread for supper.

Add cinnamon, nutmeg, grated ginger to your taste. Maybe a little organic hazelnut oil – whatever combination of tastes you especially like.

Drown the sliced bread in the sauce above, pick it up with a spatula and let the liquid drip off for a few seconds and then fry it in an iron skillet or grill or griddle until nicely browned on one side and then turn it over to the other side.

Either sprinkle turbinado sugar on the bread when you turn it over or just continue to let the bread fry until done and pour a bit of organic maple syrup over the Lost Bread once you put it on your plate for eating.

FRENCH TOAST

The basic difference between Lost Bread and French Toast is the kind of bread you use and the method of cooking.

For French Toast buy a loaf of organic french bread. For this you can buy the organic bread which is stale and being sold at a substantial discount. French bread is long and thin – Italian bread is sort of the same, but fat in the middle. I think French Bread is best used for this, however, it all comes down to a matter of taste – or culture.

Let the loaf harden if it isn’t already ‘stale and hard’.

Slice the long thin french bread into about 1 1/2 or 2 inch slices. Let the slices soak in the sauce above for a couple minutes until they seem spongy and then fry on an iron grill turning when one side is light brown. This serves up well when cooked on a circular iron grill and served on the same grill.

Once both sides have a bit of color arrange them on an iron grill or griddle and pour more of the sauce on top of the bread so it is soaked. It is also important to use generous amounts of grated organic ginger mixed with the sauce for a really fabulous taste.

Put the french toast, which is nice and shiny with the added sauce on top, in the oven to continue cooking. Make sure you are generous with the sauce because it turns into custard inside the bread with the sugar on top making the bread a bit crispy and crusty on top. This takes only about five minutes. The bread will puff out and become beautiful and very tasty. Don’t let it stay too long. It takes a bit of experimenting to get the hang of exactly when to take this French Toast out of the oven. Each oven takes a different amount of time.

Serve it with a platter of sliced ham and you have a fabulous breakfast.

______________________________________________________


Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Or you can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check out to “Bettina Network, inc.” since the blog income is not the foundation income.

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com




Bettina Oracle Speaks

Tuesday, January 29th, 2019

The end of Donald Trump: Illegitimate President of the United States

You folks need to stop bothering me and take care of your business. If you don’t, the next generation will simply have to repeat this scenario which has been repeated for generations without resolving anything. Learn a bit of history, your own history and you will be appalled at what you see – if you have any goodness left in your genes.

You are riddled with liars, murderers covering for each other, persecutions of innocent children, and so much more. The Jews of Hitlers Germany have been replaced by the Children of the United States who are being slaughtered with guns in your streets and in their schools and the Children of Immigrants, who are being put in Concentration Camps and are now being murdered. Those children who have have come to your country – some with their parents, some without – seeking asylum and refuge from so much evil. Their skin is brown and black and your bigotry won’t allow for that. Too many such colors in these United States already.

You need to be full of integrity, good character, working to eliminate poverty, homelessness, BIGOTRY – which is the genesis of all of your society’s ills. You need to stop allowing the likes of Donald Trump who is taking from his evil twins in history and ripping children from their parents; making slaves of those in prison who have suffered under massive incarcerations to do the bidding of the evil institutions in this world of yours and so much more. And no, Trump did not start all of this, but he is the inheritor and chief propagator of the evil coming through today. And to end this, all it takes is moral courage and who amongst you has that? You are all called, but who amongst you answers the call? This is still happening today after thousands of years of such history because only a few answer the call. The rest of you raise up those few and feel that your work is done because of that raising up and acknowledging those heroes. Interestingly, your heroes are never raised up in their own generation. That happens only after they are safely dead.

OK! So you want to know what is happening?

Roger Stone was indicted – did you notice how swift that happened with all of the charges against him not in that court document of indictment? Have you noticed the rumblings of major change? Are you beginning to hear many voices raised to call out the evil? Evil doubles down when those rumblings start.

What do we see: We see Whitaker having stopped the Mueller investigation by declaring to them they will not be allowed any more indictments. Stone is the last and he slipped through by a fluke. No indictments allowed against Donald Trump, against Jr., against Jared Kushner, against Steve Bannon, against Ivanka Trump, against Eric Trump.

Mueller can’t step up to the microphone to tell you this. There are enough bread crumbs along the way, however, for you to see this yourselves.

All of this must be settled and ended before or shortly after Barr takes on the post of Attorney General. He will clear Trump using the foundation set by Whitaker, a man who has been promised much, but who will be dumped on and pushed aside after his work is done – without his promised rewards. If he is lucky, he will leave with a loaf of bread, but no butter. Maybe as he sees his expectations so dashed he will step up to the moral plate and attempt to bring about something else – but he does not look like a soul who is destined to be a great hero.

All bets, in your society, are on the Democrats coming through in 2020 and taking over the government so the United States does not have to step up to the plate and deal with its sins. That is the way taken by lazy souls who want, but don’t want to give or risk. Cover-up is whats going on. Isn’t that what went on with Nixon? And his sins don’t begin to compare to the Trump Family Criminal Enterprise. Didn’t the Trump followers just blatantly take the sanctions from one of the wealthy, prominent Russians in their last days? And who will go against that and set it right? No one, so far.

What always amazes me is the ability of human beings to see themselves as ‘different from’, better than, – Trump may have treated those others badly, but I am going to be treated differently. All of my dreams will be realized because Trump promised me that…………..

And Khashoggi? Does Trump walk away having done a major work in covering up and taking the Saudi prince out of the spotlight? Did that give you a peep under the rug to see who is really working the gears and producing the results? It is definitely not Putin, although all media has anointed him as the one to whom Trump is beholden.

Trump and Putin are beholden to a mafioso who is so big in this world he makes the Italians look like thugs on the street and the Irish not far behind and lets not even begin to talk about the African American and other mafia.

You are going to be witnesses to how the clean-up ends. You can watch it with clear eyes or you can let the mythology replace reality. What mythology? That which was put into place to insure the rich get richer; the evil don’t pay; the thugs realign and move off into the sunset with new partners to get richer in tomorrows world. And the rest of you? Passing your lack of moral courage on to your next generation to preserve them in that struggling middle to upper middle class so they can pass the lack of moral courage you inherited on for many more generations.

So you asked – so I’ve said!

_______________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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__________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

_________________________________________________________

Donald Trump and Gay Folks!

Monday, December 31st, 2018

A series of articles to look at, give a partial analysis and outline of Trump’s base and what it cam expect of him.  We are starting with that portion of Trump’s base which are those who are very anti-gay, homophobic, are sure gay folks are trying to convert their children, destroy Christianity and the values they claim to hold close to their hearts and so much more.  You know the rhetoric and you know that portions of Trump’s base overlap.  It is very true that those who are homophobic have other bigotries against other groups which overlap, but this article addresses itself to the anti-gay community portion of Trump’s agenda.

Trump has tried to satisfy them by attempting to ban transgender people from serving in the armed forces, throwing out of the armed forces those transgender people already serving and more.

We will not say much about Donald Trump in his teens because those are tender years and can be the background for the direction in which a person travels, but could also be just experimental and a passing phase.

When we get to Donald Trump in his 20’s, however, we see a person beginning to show his values and to set his life’s path.

One of the people Donald Trump met, who became his mentor, was Roy Cohn.  Roy Cohn was a prominent New York attorney with an awesome reputation for bullying.  He was, at the time, a very famous attorney in these United States and not always for the best of reasons.  At the end of his life he was disbarred for many reasons like – particularly reprehensible conduct, and his ethics were called into question and so much more.   Cohn’s clients included several of New York City’s mafia, who he defended along with a large and impressive roster of clients.

Roy Cohn connects – Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, the Rosenbergs, Roger Stone, Joseph McCarthy, and many more.  A surprising confluence of people.

For the purpose of this article, that which is right out there about Roy Cohn is that he was gay and he died of AIDS.  He is the person most responsible for helping Donald Trump move from his father’s businesses in Queens, New York to Manhattan.  In the process Donald Trump and Roy Cohn were extremely close.  If you could not find one you called the other and that person could tell you where to go or call to find the other – they were that close.

They spent evenings together over candlelight dinners at Club 54; once Trump married, Roy Cohn spent many evenings having dinner with the Trumps at their condo in Trump Tower and that in spite of the fact that Roy Cohn did not think Ivana was the person Donald should have married.  

Donald Trump was in the middle of the male gay community which surrounded Roy Cohn.  He was accepted as one of the boys and his relationship with Roy Cohn was common knowledge and also accepted.

Donald Trump was one of Roy Cohn’s most important clients.  If you did anything with Trump that would or could have resulted in a legal battle you had to deal with Roy Cohn, but Trump rarely, if ever, paid Cohn.  And if you went to Trump’s office during that time there would be a large picture of Roy Cohn on his desk.

We could go on for pages about Donald Trump’s relationship with Roy Cohn, but the point of this article is that during that time and for many years after Roy Cohn’s death, Donald Trump was in the middle of a very sophisticated gay group in Manhattan in which he was totally accepted.  According to some he provided an apartment, at Roy Cohn’s request, to one of Cohn’s friends who was dying of AIDS so he could live out his shortened life in relative comfort and Trump did just that – giving up a condo in Trump Tower – for free.

With that background, where does this hatred of people who are gay come from?  Where does this doing whatever he can to limit access to the gay community of the many things previously granted them as equality – like gay marriage?    The question becomes – why does Trump’s background and relationships  show that he would do the exact opposite?  Why did he have a mentor who was very gay and in the middle of a gay community bringing Trump into the middle of that community in a very public way?

At no time has Trump acknowledged that lifestyle, nor has he said anything about that personal history.  He did not come out, for example, to say that “at one time I was very supportive of the gay community, but in xxxx year I discovered my fault and reformed – turned my back on that history and all of the people with whom I had a close association and friendship and now have decided that homophobic is what I really am and have cut off associations and friendships with any and all gay people except those who have recanted, turned their lives around and are now straight.”

From where in his soul does this close association and friendship with many gay males come from – people with whom he had an extremely close relationship – to make him today able to move his campaign to take an active homophobic stance on many issues; to talk about people who are gay in very negative and subhuman terms; to go after those who are transgender to keep them away from serving in the armed forces and in many other ways.

More to the point would be – how and why do the people who really are homophobic and whose agenda is to rid society of everyone who is gay, transgendered, etc.  have simply taken Trump at his word.  Even knowing this background and history, they have never questioned any of this background.  What is going on here that they believe that he, without political campaigns to win,  would continue to act to make sure this gay group of people are clearly oppressed and not equal to the rest of society?

Surely they have had at least a passing thought that when Trump has no more campaigns to win he would then govern in such a way as to bring the gay community into equity with the rest of society and the goals of the homophobic community destroyed and turned against them.

Anything else makes no human sense.  To say God is using Trump makes even less sense because in my many decades of reading scripture God does not involve me and mine in any evil that God moves to eliminate.  God takes the evil hitting me and turns it into good.  God does the work and humanity benefits.  God upheavals and me and mine are playing God as we see fit.  But this part of Trump’s base has many excuses as to why they are supporting Trump because they believe, in the long run he will act in the interest of and promotion into society of their anti-gay, homophobic, anti transgender beliefs and life actions.

We believe that is nonsense and we believe something else is operating here and we believe we know what that is about.

Take a look at Bill Cosby and the evil he inflicted on dozens of women with his corrupt actions.  Look at how many years and how much pain and suffering and hard work it took to expose Bill Cosby and bring him to justice.  Why was that?  Why did so many people for so long support Bill Cosby in spite of what was showing right in their faces up close and personal?

For many, many decades television, books, and much more of media coverage portrayed Bill Cosby as this loving father and great man.  He received all kind of awards – not based on who he was, but based on his media persona – which many believed and would not let go of even in the face of facts which proved otherwise.  It took decades before it began to seep into the world’s conscience that the Bill Cosby on television and all of those Cosby family books and other kinds of media that circulated was created fiction and not the real Bill Cosby.  The real Bill Cosby was the person going to Court who was finally proven to be the sexual predator that he actually was and not the great, kind, with it father he portrayed in many media settings.  The kind of father we all want and many of us don’t have.  It is extremely difficult to give up on that kind of dream.  And the kind of dream Turmp portrayed – great business executive, incredibly successful giving others and maybe one day us the opportunity to follow in his footsteps.  That is like giving up on the lottery for those so addicted.

For many years, Donald Trump has been portrayed on television as this great business mogul with all of the trappings to create a romantic figure to get us to tune in year after year.  We have in mind the man created by good writers, camera people, directors, producers, in books ghost written for him by others.  We have not been able to believe and to take down the man so constructed for us by the media to see the real person who is the real Donald Trump.  The media is now doing its best to show us that person, but many are resisting because Donald Trump is putting himself in front of the public as the created, romanticized person who actually exists only on television and not in real life. 

Don’t you think it is time to look carefully and scrutinize this man the way many had to scrutinize Bill Cosby to see who he actually was and to look away from and put in the fairy tale books the Bill Cosby and Donald Trump created as marketing tools to sell all kinds of products to the average American citizen?

And don’t you think, given those two examples of human beings turned into almost monsters by their media persona and how far we have had to go to expose them as other than that romantic image – that we should give lots of thought to what we create and watch and give credence to in the media because clearly that is now roiling our society by the way it has seeped into our consciousness and affected decisions in real life and in how we make choices for ourselves and others?  

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Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale

Project 2 – Wells Fargo Boycott

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

Start writing or type / to choose a block


A Trumpian Sonnet

Monday, December 24th, 2018

How have I sold you out?  Let me count the ways –

I sold you out to the depth and breadth and height

my soul could reach striving for and needing great wealth,

control, supremacy over all.

You were the means by which that greatness within the

circle of dictators could be acquired and attained.

My life, from its beginning to its end, has always been about the ideal

situation that would make me better than anyone else ever with

the world acknowledging my greatness.

My reach for the top of power,

money, supremacy of my whiteness

is all that motivates me. 

I have not lost my saints – there were never any there for me by

my life’s choices.

 I wanted to be free to make my own choices

without the handicap of society’s ethics, morals, character which had

constraints that would not allow me the freedom I needed.

My freedom and supremacy uber alles and on my own terms

are beliefs to which I hold and have always lived by.

In my childhood faith I was a god and resented those around

who did not acknowledge such.

In my adulthood, I am god – at the top of the mountain talking only

to a friend who has been there counseling me forever taking his

advice and suggestions.  

He wants world control and asked for my help – which I freely gave.

I didn’t even mind the intense heat and sulfur smell which seemed to

always surround him. 

Through my smiles, tears, through all of my life I have wanted to

be the one he chose – so now I walk into his house with those

like me and we shall, for an eternity, be together.

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Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale

Project 2 – Wells Fargo Boycott

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד׃‬

Wednesday, October 31st, 2018

My heart cries out to you, O God,

others hear and feel their own – but you, O God, hear the pain on my heart and my life.
By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.
You, O God are omnipotent and gave me life
To you I owe everything.
Where are you now God that those who tried and did take the lives of my ancestors those dark days in Germany
are back today trying to take my life.
My soul screams to you, O God, as do the souls of those who escaped the Holocaust with their lives, but wound up
in a foreign land which rejects us.
How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land
How can we praise you, O God, when we escaped the Concentration Camps – the Pograms – the constant
humiliations –
How can we forget that when we finally broke free from the bondage which demanded and took the lives of those
we love, no country wanted us
We were refugees on a ship in the ocean not able to land because we were repudiated
No one wanted us,
Wealthy nations wanted the wealthy – they passed laws to only allow into their space relatives of those who were rich and who looked like them, talked like them, had the same values including the rejection of those like me – one of your chosen, O God, but to others one who they reject because of my love of God.  They wanted the young, those trained and able to serve their needs. They wanted those who would compromise their God for wealth, power and control.
We had been debased; we had been treated as beasts of burden and slaves
We had with us the elderly, the sick, those emotionally crippled, the destitute, those whose hearts cried because
they were afraid to let out their pain in any other way – the cost of others hearing and seeing their pain was too high.
The countries to whom we made our supplications turned us away and so we floated – with no food, no water, tired and desperate
Those same countries are killing us today and they are killing those who are not us, but who are unlike them
They come out and shoot us as they do animals and birds of prey only they are more careful with those because
they have a monetary value to them – we do not.
Those who arrive on these shores in the condition we were in all those many years ago are treated with the same disdain and rejection.  Has nothing changed?  Have they no shame?  Have they no soul?  Are they so enmeshed in evil they cannot overcome it?
They have not learned, they do not know!
O God you have searched me and you know me
Rescue me, O Lord, from evil men and women who are all around me and all around those you cherish
protect me from men and women of violence who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war everyday.
they make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s
the poison of vipers is on their lips
O Lord, I say to you, You are my God
do not grant the wicked their desires
do not let their plans succeed.
Let the heads of those  who surround me be covered with the troubles their lips  have caused
I know that God secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy
Let justice, O God, roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream
For today is replicated, in my land, the plight of the Jews during Hitler’s day.  But in this day others have been added.  Not just those who sympathize with the Jews, but those whose skin is darker; whose language is different; who are trying to sing Your song in a strange land.

Immigrants looking for a home, in this land,  are characterized as a “Caravan”  looking to attack a nation when in reality they are refugees seeking asylum, a place where they can find food, shelter and a safe place for their children.

In this society can justice be done by the victims of injustice?  That is who we are O God and we are trying to reach out to those who are in the space we occupied just a generation ago.

Is that possible, O God?  Can we continue living in a space also occupied by such pain and evil.

We will use our institutions to bring about justice and our lives to insure that others do not have to walk that Trail of Tears the way we were forced to walk it without food, water or shelter.

If that is possible, we will try, O God, so others will not have to serve and live the horrible life of slaves, who have been consigned to live as beasts of burden.

Thought I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.

you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes.

With your right hand, you save me.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?
When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh
when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.
though war break out against me even then will I be confident.
One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek God in God’s temple.
Of one thing am I confident –
that I will see the beauty of the Lord in the land of the living!
And in the end:

In memory of:

Maurice Stallard , (69)- Louisville, Kentucky                                                                                                                       Vicki Lee Jones (67) – Louisville, Kentucky

The Lord bless you and keep you

May  God’s face  shine upon you and be gracious unto you

May  God’s face be lifted unto you and give you peace, both now and ever more.

Numbers 6:22-27

Look at what we are doing! Join us!

Tuesday, September 25th, 2018

We have had many valued guests over the past 35 years we have been in business.They are always very discerning people and we are looking to add more like them so we are letting you know about our new movements in the hopes you will call to either add your home and talent to Bettina Network and Bettina Hedge Schools and/or you will call us when you travel to use our services.

We hope you will  become one of those who cares about where you stay when traveling and are always searching for knowledge, wisdom and a greater understanding of the world. We combine both! A concept we originated and for which we have high hopes.

To Bettina Network, inc. we have added:

BETTINA NETWORK HEDGE SCHOOLS

which are elegant accommodations, with an emphasis on diversity, and includes serendipitous learning for those who travel with Bettina’s!

Bettina Network Hedge Schools took  a very old concept, dusted it off and updated it in such a way that we are deep into lifelong learning.

Hedge School Families share their histories, experiences, learning and wisdom when you choose to stay with them when you travel.

Hedge School Facilitators travel Bettina Network and turn up in the most unexpected places.  They bring an added layer of learning as the HSF specialize in many different areas of learning and doing.

Instead of depending upon serendipity, some guests ask to stay in a home with a particular emphasis – with a concert pianist; sculptor;  academics in different fields —which means, for example, you can improve your knitting by staying with a family of expert knitters; a chef with whom you can cook; a priest and more.

Some facts on Bettina procedures

Someone from Bettina Network, inc.spends the night in every home before it is taken into Bettina’s and offered to you.

We get to know the family with whom you will be staying and we keep up with our homes on a daily basis.

We send out a “Guest Questionnaire” to everyone who stays in a Bettina Home and our return rate is 90%. That tells us – usually in great detail – the experience of a guest and keeps us aware in another way of what is happening in Bettina Network homes.

We accept cash, checks, credit cards – OR – we invoice your company.

We invite you to look to Bettina Network, inc., when  looking for a place to stay for those special guests who are traveling to give a lecture; to collaborate on a research project; to be a tourist; those giving a performance in an extraordinary music event, or etc.

And don’t forget Bettina Network’s blog

www.bettinanetwork.com/blog

The blog is thought provoking with contributions from members of Bettina’s Lifestyle Community.  Once you become a member of this incredibly diverse community, we invite you to write articles, send pictures, float ideas, try out your latest research on a great audience – which, as of today, includes some 2,000 to 3,000 people per day coming to read the blog.

Given our resources, we have information, news, and ideas you won’t find anyplace else.Join our little group, add your voice and use our services.

Bettina Network, inc – P. O. Box 380585 – Cambridge, MA. 02238

phone: 617 497 9166or toll free: 800-347-9166 within the U.S.

bettina-network@comcast.net      https://www.bettina-network.com

Sincerely,

All of us at Bettina’s

Bettina’s Menu of Events – a benefit for members of Bettina’s Lifestyle Community!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Bettina Network, inc.
P. O. Box 380585
Cambridge, MA. 02238
phone: 617 497 9166 inside and outside the U. S.
toll free phone: 800 347 9166 inside the U. S.
web-site: bettina-network.com
email: bettina-network@comcast.net

_________________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

Keep U. S. Conferences White?

Sunday, August 12th, 2018

ed.note: We are beginning to notice that this Trump/Sessions keeping black/brown people out of the U. S. is not simply an immigrant thing. It is not just about keeping America White by keeping out non-white immigrants, nor is it only about throwing out resident and/or non-white immigrants with green cards who have become U. S. tax payers under as many pretexts as possible. Others are being kept out or their attempt to visit for a brief time, especially for research and collaboration, is made unnecessarily difficult and that difficulty is new – it is not a carry over from past administrations. One person – a member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community has shared his experience with us and it follows.

“I was raised and educated in China till college. I came to the US to obtain my PhD at Princeton and continued as a postdoc at Harvard. In total I stayed in the US for 10 years before returning to China to accept a faculty position in Beijing in 2017. I have maintained collaborations with both institutions.

This year, I planned a 2-week visit to Princeton in June, but my visa application was denied during the interview. No specific reason was given other than “the purpose of the visit is not consistent with the visa type for which you have applied”, which is a standard business/tourist visa. I realized later that what caused the denial was my honest statement that this trip was for research collaboration. In fact, this is never allowed under this visa type. The J-type visa serves this purpose, though it is much more complicated and is usually for long-term visit (e.g., I was under the J-visa during my 5-year post doc).

This is really upset, besides the fact that the visa interview process itself is very uncomfortable and time-consuing: no bags or cell phone is allowed in the embassy, and one has to wait in long queues multiple times throughout the process which sometimes can be quite chaotic. One generally wastes half a day just for the interview without anything else done.

With this application denied (and trip cancelled), I will have to do another visa application for a workshop in mid-July to early-August. It is a special workshop running for 3-weeks, and the purpose is to bring people in the field together in a relaxed setting to promote interactions/discussions and inspire new ideas. Participants are asked to stay for at least two weeks, and I planned to join for the later two weeks. This time, the visa officer questioned why my previous application was denied, and also why a conference takes such a long time. Despite my explanation, he asked me to provide more materials to demonstrate the purpose of the visit, in particular a “conference schedule”. Well, this is not a standard conference no such schedule exists before the workshop actually begins when people start to figure out an agenda. I had to write to my conference organizer for an additional letter (he already wrote an invitation letter for me) to explain the situation.

Upon collecting everything, I resent my application, which is then sent for “administrative processing”. This is not uncommon for Chinese scholars, which usually takes 4-6 weeks. My application was sent in early June so I thought there should be enough time. However, I waited and waited and waited. There was no news before my originally planned travel date (I was wise not to purchase an air ticket). The week after, I realize I can check the status of my visa application online, and found that it is finally issued. By the time I actually received the visa, the workshop was already more than half-way done, and even if I purchase ticket to join it, most participants would already have left (in the 3rd week). As a result, I simply cancelled the trip.

On the visa, it is indicated that the “administrative processing” completed in 4 weeks where my case was cleared, but the visa was not issued until some 3 more weeks later. They clearly didn’t want me to attend the conference. Moreover, the visa could have been valid for 10 years, but mine is only valid for 1 year.

Nevertheless, with the visa finally at hand, I temporarily planned a trip to visit Princeton the week after, though the original 2-week plan becomes 3 days. This is followed by a 2-day visit to Cambridge to attend another conference. The visit is brief due to my other time constraints, but is fruitful. I stayed at a Bettina Network Hedge School in Cambridge, the same place I stayed back in 2011 when I came to visit Harvard for a job talk. Everything is very enjoyable with illuminating conversations at breakfast as well as meetings and gatherings with many of my colleagues and friends.

I am at the airport now to return to China soon. Thank you for the warm and welcoming experience that you offer and I will come back again despite the disgusting experience with the embassy.”
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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

Unfair and Ugly Marketing!

Saturday, July 28th, 2018

by: Marceline Donaldson

We hope you will take notice and respond to a crucial request!!!!!!!!

As a business partially owned by minorities and women, Bettina Network, inc. constantly has to protect itself and put up barriers to those who seem to need to undermine and attack us in any way possible. We are asking all of you to take notice. Not only for Bettina Network, inc. but to be responsible consumers and require companies to be ethical, moral and treat others with respect.

That is how we have tried to live and work. We know there are many of you out there who do the same. I think these past few years with what is happening in the United States should bring all of us to the realization that we have been given a choice. We can live and work in a world in which we undercut others; insult others; demean others or we can succeed through hard work, being of good character and morals.

We have had a very ugly experience when a member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community called to tell us we were being undercut by a web site called IloveInns.com

How were they doing this?

By telling the world on their web site that Bettina Network, inc. was closed and no longer in business.

I was amazed and could not understand why anyone would do such a thing.

When I checked, sure enough there was the message in more than one place on their web site with Bettina Network, inc. listed – with other companies – but the line under the name Bettina Network, inc. has a little message for the readers telling them this company is no longer in business.

Bettina Network, inc. was the only company on their site with such a listing.

If they thought that was the case, they could have called to verify – they did not. If they didn’t want to call they could have looked up the web site for Bettina Network, inc. – they did not. Nor did they do anything else before taking such a step which could drastically and negatively affect someone else’s business.

They deliberately chose to put out this bit of negative advertising in an attempt to hurt our business.

Why do I say it was done to hurt us?

Most people would have simply eliminated a company which they determined was out of business. And before taking that step, most people would have made sure their information was accurate. To have kept Bettina Network, inc. listed with the additional tag of being out of business is negatively advertising another company and quite clearly, intentional.

I hope all of you respond.
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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

A BNLMember Responds to Poetry

Monday, July 9th, 2018

I loved the poem about trees. I would love to respond with my own poetry, but until that day this is what I found which i find beautiful and an addendum to Lynn O. Cohen’s poem –

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.”
– William Blake, 1799, The Letters

“I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines.”
– Henry David Thoreau, 1817 – 1862

“Around a flowering tree, one finds many insects.”
– Proverb from Guinea

“Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?”
– Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road

“God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying, “Ah!” “
– Joseph Campbell

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

Hair Color – Organic/Beautiful/Changeable!

Sunday, June 24th, 2018

Many breakfast table conversations move into the areas of health and beauty.  We have heard just about everything people do to enhance their natural looks and we have tried everything talked about.  We don’t put everything out for you to try or know about because we want to make sure someone in the Network has tried it and thinks it is marvelous.

As you get older your hair ages just as your skin, your bones and everything else.  So trying to “fix it”, “stop it”,  “shape it up”, “strengthen it” and in this case “keep my beautiful locks” can become a constant pre-occupation. A fun pre-occupation, but time consuming – so, expecting great results goes along with the staying beautiful and always at my peak of perfection.  My grandmother used to say “when you step out of that front door you should look as though you just stepped out of a band box.”  During those years I knew what she meant.  Today, I often wonder just what is a “band box”?

Entering into this discussion  comes “Henna” – a hundreds of years old solution to all kinds of hair problems.  One not so popular today because it is simply a plant which has been mashed and ground to a powder.

Several of us have been using Henna in different ways for several years and it has turned out to be fantastic.  It has taken all those years to learn how to get the best results but it was worth the trial and error and the gnashing of teeth. My hair has never been so beautiful and we are 20 times (4) years old, or maybe its is 20 times (2) years old or maybe it is something else?

The Henna we found most usable is the kind which is pure organically grown Henna.  No chemicals of any kind added; no preservatives; no anything else – just the crushed leaves of the Henna plant.  If you are going to try Henna, make sure it is real and not a part of a mixture of other things.

Now to – how to use Henna for your hair:

First:  Wash your hair with a good shampoo.  The Henna we settled on advises that you wash your hair with a shampoo without essential oils.  I use an organic shampoo with lavender essential oil and it seems to do fine although it is possible that the Henna would last longer if I listened to the experts.

Second:  Decide with what you want to mix your Henna.  We’ve tried eggs, organic apple cider vinegar, tea, coffee, yogurt and much more.  I found eggs and organic apple cider vinegar works best in my hair which is naturally curly and can look unruly if it gets dry – which can be often.

Don’t try eggs and organic apple cider vinegar at the same time.  Try one and next time try the other.  Inbetween applying Henna I now use a raw egg in my hair after I shampoo.  Crack the egg, beat it to mix yolk and white, cover your hair with the raw egg and make sure your all hair is covered while you sit with your hair and head wrapped in something like Saranwrap or a shower cap and wrapping a towel around my head for 1/2 hour or more depending upon what else I have to do. This is the same process I use for the Henna.   If I mixed Henna with organic apple cider vinegar. then when I wash my hair in-between Henna applications I go back to using the egg as a conditioner.

I was totally amazed at what the raw egg did for my hair.  At first I thought it was the Henna, but after many tries I realized it was the raw egg.  My hair comes out softly curled in spite of my doing nothing to it after the egg application except drying the hair with a towel and putting on a bit of organic Avocado Oil to keep it from drying out.  I know the effect has not come from the Avocado Oil because I used that before I started with Henna and eggs and after a day or two my hair dried out and looked as though it was breaking off and out of control.  With the egg and Avocado Oil my hair lasts looking great for about a week before it needs to be re-washed.

I don’t use organic apple cider vinegar in-between Henna-ing my hair because I didn’t see what good it did.  When I use it combined with the Henna the color seems brighter and shinier.

Third:  Ready to apply Henna to freshly washed hair – mix the Henna powder (which is ONLY Henna leaves pounded into a powder) with one or two raw eggs which you have whipped before adding and then add enough water to this mixture to end up with something the consistency of a thick, wonderful yogurt – which, by the way, is something you can also add to Henna.(Instead of the egg or apple cider vinegar).

Those who used tea and coffee didn’t see any observable results.  Their hair didn’t change in any way neither for the good nor the bad.  It didn’t seem to affect the color nor did it seem to contribute to how long the Henna results lasted.

My results last for about two months.  After that it is time to try again.  It lasts two months not because the color changes or leaves the hair, but because the grey grows back in and I have that color line between the new growth which is grey and the Henna’d hair.  What I really like is the new growth once I put in Henna, comes out a bit lighter than the old hair and it sort of mimics the grey and dark brown of my original hair.  The lighter color around my face has a softening effect.

I also like the fact that my hair looks as though I have had it streaked as the grey throughout comes out lighter than the hair which is still dark brown and that is also an effect I love.

You have to experiment to finally get the results you like and if you enjoy variety you won’t stop there, but keep on going so each time you step out you have a new look.  Not a drastic new look, but one of which you are aware.  Friends notice how nice you look.  It isn’t dramatic enough to notice and be able to see what the changes really have been.

Fourth:  Once you have the Henna mixed the way you would like – making sure the water you add is very hot – apply Henna to your scalp and hair until you have used it all up and have a thick coating with every hair strand covered well down to the scalp and root.

Fifth:  Wrap your head and hair with something like Saran Wrap or other material which will hold heat.  If you have a salon type hair dryer – where you put your head in the bubble and turn on the heat; or a hand held dryer with the cap attached to the hose that is great.  Go ahead with either of them.

If you use the Saran Wrap or a plastic shower cap – the ones you used to get from the airlines when you travel are great for this – after you have covered your hair completely then wrap a towel around your head to keep in the heat.  If you have the salon dryer or cap style dryer turn them on for at least 1/2 hour.  The darker your hair the longer you need to keep the Henna covered and heated.

Sixth:  Once the time has passed – I keep Henna on my hair for one hour for best results for me (you have to decide your best time through trying different times) – rinse your hair thoroughly with very warm water until the Henna has all washed out.  Be very thorough in this wash.

Seventh:  After rinsing the Henna out of your hair completely, shampoo as usual, towel dry your hair, and add a bit of organic Avocado oil.

Eighth:  After all of the above go about life as normal.  If you set your hair on huge rollers, do that.  If you shake your head, do nothing and go about your business do that also.  If you comb and arrange your hair the way you would like it to look when dry and then put on a netting to keep your hair in place while it dries – do that also.

Let us know your results.  This is a give and take article.  We’ve given and now we are ready to take in your experiences.  Let us know if you want your results published with or without your name.  You do have to be a member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community to have your results published in the Bettina Network blog.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

Trump – the Evil that needs to be removed from these United States!

Tuesday, June 19th, 2018

by Marceline Donaldson

I can’t believe what I am seeing and hearing about.  It is heartbreaking – it is beyond anger – it is evil personified – it is believably unbelievable.  Donald Trump needs to be incarcerated immediately and kept in jail for decades.  He seriously needs to be jailed for the rest of his life.  That is being generous because I started with other much harsher things that I thought should happen to him.

I sit here with tears streaming down my face as I hear the tape of the children being incarcerated alone without family; as I hear about children being taken from their mother’s breast while nursing because Donald Trump decided that should be done; as I read about all the other things being done, lies being told, others blamed for Trump’s deliberate actions.

Clearly, the Summit and Trump’s talks and friendship with Kim Jong Un has produced much only we were looking for what it produced from the North Korean side.  I suspect as long as Trump is president we will see much worse than we are seeing now.  Coming back from North Korea with such high praise for a dictator who has killed his own family; who has done so much more and Trump has come back to these United States much more influenced by Kim Jong Un than Un was by Trump.

Trump has come back to continue to lie, cheat and now to steal the lives of children with no thought except that this is how he can use these children to gain a political advantage and impress his “base”.  A mind set he brought back from North Korea – I am sure we will see more of this filth done by Trump because he is seeing himself as a replica of all the dictators with whom he is enthralled.  There is a place in hell for people like Trump.  There is no excuse for what he is doing and there is no forgiveness.  You must repent to be forgiven and Trump is bragging about what he is doing and knowingly blaming those, who had nothing to do with his evil, for its results.

There was SENATOR Joe McCarthy with Roy Cohn sitting next to him whispering into his ear.  We have moved on from that and we now have PRESIDENT Donald Trump who was tutored by the same Roy Cohn and is showing us that he is much greater in his evil than SENATOR Joe McCarthy was in his.  What were those lessons?  Failed in something?  Take that to the highest mountain and claim to everyone that you have just experienced a great success.  Blame others for any and everything you have done which didn’t work out the way you expected.  Do evil and name others as the ones who really perpetrated the evil and you walk away free.  Adults suffered under McCarthism as their jobs were taken away from them for no reason and their lives were upheaveled to satisfy the needs of a man who was seriously alcoholic among other evils.  But Donald Trump has taken McCarthyism many steps further down the road and he is destroying the lives of children who already suffered much before they arrived in this country with parents who brought them here to escape the suffering they all were experiencing.

Let me not leave out Sessions – the scripture quoting Attorney General who has spent his life being “better than” and doing everything he could to destroy the lives of African Americans and others he considered less than and who he didn’t feel deserved anything except the dregs of life.  He is now getting his chance to show who he really is and what he really believes.  On the world stage he is showing everyone just how evil he really is and how far he will go to bring about a society in which White Supremacy succeeds beyond his wildest imaginings with himself as one of the architects of that success.

A man does not surround himself with Neo-Nazi’s, White Supremacists; and other such believers unless he shares their belief system.  It is difficult to stay in such a person’s presence who has such beliefs.  That is who Trump fraternizes with daily.  Remember Charlottesville?  We are now bringing in Stephen Miller and others on whom to drop blame, but Trump not only was the architect of that but was very clear that these were his beliefs.  He saw that backfire in his face.  He is not going to again call on those same people unless he is one of them and wants to see their and his beliefs succeed and be installed in this society as its way of operating.  These are the people Trump calls his “base” and those are the ideas and beliefs that Donald Trump cultivates, preserves and stays close to as the seat of his power.  This is the belief system in which he was raised when he was the age of the young children he is now incarcerating in tents and “camps” which degrade and tear down the human spirit at ages as young as 4 months.

We knew before we elected Donald J. Trump as president that he was an abuser and assaulter of women.  He bragged about it on television – a segment we all heard and many of us apparently didn’t find it horrible enough to take seriously.  Either that or we were right in the Trump camp and approved of his abuse and assault of women.  There were some 19 woman who charged Trump with assault during his campaign.  It was clear that he also had others pay off women so they could not bring charges against him and yet many voted for this monster.  We wanted a racist, sexist, sexual assaulter, Neo-Nazi, son of a Ku Klux Klansman who raised his son in his values and on and on it goes.  A man whose values are those of some of the worse dictators in this country?  We have tried many times to excuse him – it is time to call out the truth and stand by it.

During the presidential campaign there were many reports from those who accessed the divorce proceedings of Trump from his first wife Ivana which talked about his rape of her – she later retracted that claim – why? was it because her alimony was being held until she did just that?; the fact that he had a copy of “Mein Kampf” next to his bed on his bedside table and he read it every night and on and on were also included.  I think we now see the results of such goings on.  They were ignored by many of those who wanted these United States to remain and go back to the racism and sexism of the past when being “White” meant something about how great you were without doing anything except having been born the ‘right color’ – everyone knew what “Make America Great Again” meant.  It was simply a more polite way of saying “Make American White Again” and Donald Trump and his minions have been about the process of doing just that.  The children being taken away from their parents are the children of ‘Brown’ people.  He is not keeping out nor breaking up the families of illegal immigrants from Norway for example – the country he invited to send more ‘immigrants’ to America – those are the people he has asked to come here.  Those are the people Trump has said would be ‘acceptable’ immigrants.

We have quite a history in these United States of taking children away from parents and other family members and Donald Trump is adding to that history.  We need to be moving in a direction which moves away from such, but that is clearly not happening.  The Japanese Incarcerations – the time of taking thousands of Native American children away from their parents and families – the taking of people from African Countries and bringing them to America to keep them chained and bound and in slavery for some 250 years all during which children were stripped away from their parents and sold into slavery because the slave “owners” wanted the money and the inhumanity of what they were doing was beyond their ability to grasp because they were “better than” and they had characterized and classified these Africans as sub-human.  Some of the children sold into slavery were the children of the white man who was doing the selling – his own children he sold on the slavery auction block.  That takes a lot of evil inside to be able to do that and still walk the streets in this world.

Today, children are being murdered in record numbers in their school rooms and we do very little to stop that slaughter.  African Americans, including children,  are being killed – many times by law enforcement when they have been unarmed and have committed no crime and we do not stop that slaughter.  Whole communities of Africans and African Americans have been massacred over hundreds of years by the ancestors of those who have Donald Trump’s ear and whose agendas he is carrying out.  when a community of African Americans reached a substantial level after they had been thrown out elsewhere – people, who today would be called Trump’s base arrived in those communities and slaughtered the African Americans who had achieved a family life, jobs, homes, children in a very settled and on a very middle class level.

We talk in these United States about how “divided” we are today.  Some claim there has never been a time when we as a people have been so pulled apart; so stressed out from the extreme divisions we see in our political lives.  We need to learn a bit of United States history and remember that time called the Civil War.  We were far more divided then than we are today.   As we look at our divisions they are the same as they were then.  It is no accident that the memorials of that Civil War came into contention just months ago when we looked around at the foul history they represented.  The groups of people working with Trump today are simply the progeny of those who divided into groups which resulted in such a bloody war.  they are also the people to whom it was important to keep those symbols of slavery and its affects on this country.  This is what we are seeing today as Trump incarcerates children – “brown” children.  The issues were defined only slightly differently than they are today, but the dynamics are the same.  The difference is we had an Abraham Lincoln and many people who were in positions of power who had nothing in common with someone like Donald Trump and his administration.

It is time to call a halt to this.  We have the power to do so and to claim otherwise is to acquiesce and go along with Trump’s program.  If we can’t do it any other way then we need to storm those Concentration Camps, release those children and get them back to their families.  Drastic for law abiding citizens, but whose laws do you abide?  Do you sit and wring your hands wondering what to do?  Do you allow Donald Trump’s policies which he claims as laws?  It is unlawful for him to do what he is doing – if that is not unlawful then we need to close down this country.  Is he going to be arrested for this extreme abuse of power?

We wondered why he pardoned Arpaio?  Can you see that a bit clearer now as Trump has given his go ahead for tent cities to be built in the most desolate, hottest places he could find in this country so he could do to children what Arpaio did to adults?  Is Arpaio one of his consultants in these tent city dreams he is bringing into reality?  His goal seems to be to torture children to get adults to do his bidding.  I can’t think of another word to use because evil is what this is all about.  Evil walks this earth whispering in Donald Trumps’ ear and he is constantly doing its bidding.

What happens when the children start dying?  What happens when children and parents do not come back together again because they can’t find one another.  Do the children then get turned out to roam the streets and live homeless on the street because their parents have been deported – they can’t find their parents and their parents can’t find them and the horrendous trauma of these events incapacitates many of these children for decades?  The United States Government under Donald Trump is not going to find family and parents of the children so separated.  They will get back together again somehow in spite of Trump and if they don’t – he certainly won’t care – and what about the rest of us!!!!!!!!!!

As this man moves closer to Kim Jong Un and all the other dictators he glorifies he is also moving the United States closer to being the kind of country they lead doing the kind of things they do.  One step at a time, but that is definitely the path he is on and to see otherwise is for us to lie, put our heads in the sand, put our hope in an evil, corrupt human being.   Are we ready to kill, maim, lie, expand the patterns from the past in these United States? Let’s not con ourselves into thinking this will soon pass.  It took years for the horrors we have perpetrated on others to pass and we still have not made amends nor have we changed our system in ways to make sure those things don’t come back again.

Who are the people helping to bring about this policy of Donald Trump’s?  Who are the people working in these Concentration Camps.  Are they not as guilty of this evil as is Trump?  Shouldn’t they pick up their pocketbooks and other things they own and go home?  If Trump wants this separation of families to happen it needs to be done by Trump himself – any self-respecting citizen needs to be gone.  But we are too concerned about our “jobs” – about our middle-class lives, about how others will look down on us for what we are doing.

You are only helping this evil as others helped Hitler achieve his goals in Germany.  Leave those Concentration Camps immediately before you get caught up in the evil.  You are not helping anyone.  You are not doing good.  You will not make a difference you are simply aiding evil and destroying innocent lives.  It may be hard for you to walk away from the children, but that is exactly what you need to do.

And then there are the “good” people who do nothing.  To them, I have nothing to say.

Some things need to be done immediately:

  1. John Kelly needs to be stripped of his stripes – his “four star general” title and everything that goes along with it immediately.
  2. Nielsen, the Homeland Security Secretary, needs to be removed with a letter discouraging anyone from ever hiring her again for anything.
  3. Donald Trump needs to be removed from office and sent to jail soonest.
  4. Donald Trump’s son needs to be taken away from the family and sent to one of the places where Trump has incarcerated children after having stripped them of their parents and other family.
  5. The United States needs a Truth and Reconciliation process to help citizens through a horrendous time because the aftermath of Donald Trump is going to be something which will take years, incredible resources, and something extraordinary to get this country on a track to a better way of being governed and governing__________________________________________________________________

You who are reading this needs to fill in

6. Donald Trump needs to be charged with using his position and power as president of these United States to kidnap children.

7. International Organizations need to intervene to stop this child abuse by the United States Government and being to trial all those complicit.

8.

9.

10.

etc.

It is going to take at least that – and working together to try to bring goodness out of this incredible evil.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

 

 

Spending Time at a Bettina Network Hedge School

Friday, June 15th, 2018

I recently stayed at a Bettina Network Hedge School and enjoyed every minute, but came home exhausted.

Every home is different and offers a wide range of experiences so I decided to take three days – combine this trip with my vacation – and see what this is all about.

Once you’ve stayed in a Bettina home you become a member of Bettina Network Lifestyle Community.  I love that part because I now have a password and can access parts of their web site.  I can add events to Bettina’s Menu of Events or I can generate a calendar of events for the city where I am staying. Their events are not the kind you find in the entertainment section of newspapers or other kinds of media.  Many are known only to the locals and in the right city that is a great find.

I wanted to learn about upholstering a room in my house.  This was something I read about years ago in a beautifully written novel and never forgot the description of the house.

I traveled to another one of the Bettina homes a couple years ago and heard about this house which helps you look at different ways to make your house, not airtight, but as economical in using heat as possible and the one thing I heard was this house was upholstering its walls.

I know cold comes through windows and sometimes I realized how cold the inside of the outside walls of my house can become so I thought that would be great.  So, knowing very little about what I was getting into off I went on a real journey of discovery.

My first day was spent sightseeing around town.  That was great, but my attention span for those kind of things gets lost quickly. I need to do something “real” to keep going , so the second and third days I stayed at the house instead of roaming around.  A woman, who was a guest at breakfast talked about what upholstering walls was all about.  She was there to help with a bedroom and talk us through the process.  The family had done this before and will finally have all of their rooms upholstered, I was glad to be around for the second and not the first try.

I saw the padding that would be used and the beautiful brocade material that would be put over the padding.  I was over the moon.  This was going to be really special.

We started by measuring and cutting the padding to fit all the different walls and over doors and small cubbies in the room.  I realized right away this was going to dramatically reduce my heating bill.  It would be really difficult for the cold to penetrate into that room.  It would take a couple days or longer, if at all.

Stapling the padding to the walls took the rest of the day and I was kind of tired, but very proud of my work.

We had tea in the late afternoon and talked about the history of this wall upholstery – it was the precursor of wallpaper.  Most of the very upper class homes had upholstered walls.  The poorer folks – like myself – had to paper their walls, which really gives no benefit beyond aesthetic.  This wall upholstery gives aesthetic as well as insulation.

the next morning – my third day – my host family suggested I might like to hangout, tour a bit, do nothing, but I was ready to go and wanted to see this through to the end as quickly as possible.  They cautioned that I might get tired since I really was not accustomed to such work.  I didn’t want to hear any of that so after breakfast and a visit with an Interior Designer who the family knows and works with we were ready to go.

I could not believe how beautiful the material.

We had the measurements from the day before when we put up the padding, so we moved along pretty quickly cutting and stapling the material to the walls. The staple gun we used has a pot belly contraption which hooked into the upholstery staple gun which was made especially for doing upholstery work.  The pot belly thing seemed to be for the purpose of giving more power to force the staples into the wall.

As we talked to the Interior Designer she described other ways to do this wall upholstery.  One was to put framing around the walls and staple the material to this framing.  The family, however, wanted to do this by stapling directly to the wall.  Their walls were plaster and built before 1900.  It was a time when, in some buildings, plaster was mixed with marble dust and it made for a very strong plaster wall.  If they had wall board as walls they would not have been able to do the stapling directly onto the walls – and – we were stapling close to the doors and windows so that also provided a substantial surface on which to attach the material.

This is very brief from what I learned at that house.  I have a notebook full of information which I will keep close because I am going to upholster all of my walls and hopefully my next winters heating bill will drop by half.

When we finished putting the material onto the walls we used a beautiful braid and that was our finishing look for this project.  The braid blended with the material and gave everything a very professional look.

All in all it was three days well spent.  I stayed in a beautiful room – great breakfast – met a couple of people who did this wall upholstery as their vocation – and I was ready to go to work.  Only when I got home I realized I was completely exhausted.  I spent a couple days recovering because we did some hard work.  It was fun – we joked quite a bit – talked a lot – I felt as though I had known this family for years by the time I left for home – and I got over my tired in a couple days.  The same kind of tired I would have experienced from a vacation, but on this “vacation” I came home with some real learning, new friends and an understanding of what some people do for a living.  I didn’t think anyone did this, but whatever you are looking for there is someone someplace who is an expert.

I hope Bettina Network Hedge Schools grows into a huge, magnificent Network so I can try many of their homes.  What I love most about Bettina’s is that it is a corporation that is greed-free.  They will contribute to this world as well as take what they need to survive and grow.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

Bettina Oracle Speaks – AGAIN?

Monday, May 28th, 2018

We couldn’t pass up the Royal Wedding and all that means without sharing a little bit of what has transpired and its meaning and what is to come..

Lets take a look at the future as we watch the Royal Wedding re-runs.

The wedding of Meghan and Harry tells you one very important thing.  Pack your bags Donald Trump, your reality show is over – don’t drag the ending out too long because that stage of a reality show is like fresh fish left on a counter for days.

The Royal Wedding also tells you in which direction the world is moving. – It is moving quickly and in a straight line towards diversity – democracy and away from the autocrats, dictators, the uglies, the ‘for white patrons only’ people.

Clearly, England and the monarchy sees its future in a world of diversity.  A grouping of people calling themselves the English monarchy made a decision that they would no longer be identified nor would they identity themselves as all white all the time, but they would embrace diversity in everything they do.  That was a clear and unequivocal statement.  Charles may have put his head down to cover his flushed face when Presiding Bishop Michael Curry started his sermon, but in the end he was holding hands with Doria Ragland and making sure she was supported.  For someone who reportedly does not brush his own teeth, that was quite a statement – you go Charles, we are all behind you.

Following Charles’ example, even though they were giggling and snickering through parts of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s sermon will be most of the royals.  At least there will be those who count following their 1st in line heir to the throne of England.

Taking a very definite turn towards the Commonwealth with its 53 countries several of which are African and the darker colors of humanity, England has made a statement and a choice.

AND – the Cambridge Analytica’s of the world with their wealthy associates who have put their wealth into a pot of evil doings – every  penny of your wealth will burn in hell and be delivered along with your ashes, in the not too distant future, to the people you tried very hard to turn back into slaves.  You folks may have been one of the many forces behind Brexit, and behind the ascendancy of Trump to the U. S. Presidency, but there is a statement, very forcefully made in one religions scripture (Genesis 50:20) and in different ways in the scripture of all religions – ‘you, (mankind) meant it for evil, but to you (humanity) God means it for good….

How else to break England away from its all white partners, turning it completely towards a growing group of diverse humanity striving to work together for the good of all?  The Commonwealth may not today be a gathering as particularly linked together as was the EU, but given a bit of time it will decisively move in that direction.

That leaves the countries of the EU which currently identify as white, with very difficult times including any others, having a decision to make.  Turn towards Russia – an all white nation to include within your grouping?  Or get with this program of diversity and stop holding hands with the devils amongst you.

Kate and William will do well when they inherit the throne of England, but Charles won’t do too badly when he shortly ascends the throne.  He is showing his humanity and his ability to move into a very diverse community as one amongst equals.  The equals have to be elevated to his level, but when they are, he is apparently totally accepting and will have them hold his hand or take his arm as he carefully and quietly guides them into a place of comfort amongst the equals surrounding them.

Brexit – Trump’s trump card and his genesis – has done its job.  Meant as a tool of evil, it is doing good.  England can stand strong and let Brexit continue to have its sway, moving England out of the European Union and more solidly into the Commonwealth Countries without divided loyalties, bringing those countries closer together as they continue working through how they will live, work and love together without needing a “better than” crutch to divide and feel whole.  The Commonwealth Countries are not currently strongly united in the economic and political realm but in my realm we can see that coming.

Who are these countries? – 53 in total – and more to come!

Bangladesh Republic
Botswana Republic
Cyprus Republic
Cameroon Republic
Dominica Republic
Fiji Republic
Ghana Republic
Guyana Republic
India Republic
Kenya Republic
Kiribati Republic
Mawli Republic
Maldvies Republic
Malta Republic
Mauritius Republic
Mozambique Republic
Namibia Republic
Nauru Republic
Nigeria Republic
Pakistan Republic
Rwanda Republic
Samoa Republic
Seychelles Republic
Sierra Leone Republic
Singapore Republic
South Africa Republic
Sri Lanka Republic
Tanzania Republic
Trinidad and Tobago Republic
Uganda Republic
Vanuatu Republic
Zambia Republic
Brunei Monarchy
Lesotho Monarchy
Malaysia Monarchy
Swaziland Monarchy
Tongo Monarchy
Antigua and Barbuda Commonwealth Realm
Australia Commonwealth Realm
The Bahamas Commonwealth Realm
Barbados Commonwealth Realm
Belize Commonwealth Realm
Canada Commonwealth Realm
Grenada Commonwealth Realm
Jamaica Commonwealth Realm
New Zealand Commonwealth Realm
Papua New Guinea Commonwealth Realm
Saint Kitts and Nevis Commonwealth Realm
Saint Lucia Commonwealth Realm
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Commonwealth Realm
Solomon Islands Commonwealth Realm
Tuvalu Commonwealth Realm
The United Kingdom Commonwealth Realm

The immigrant question has been settled.  It now only requires a bit of time to work through to a place where our humanity is snatched back from the filthy hands of those who would use such categories of division to cause pain, destruction and damage to other human beings so a small few can feel “better than”, “Supreme-Great-Glorious”.  They will soon understand: – to everything there is a time and place and the time and place for their kind of civilization, habits, culture is gone.  It is being replaced by something more in line with God’s bidding to this world.  The continuing and continuous breaking in to this world of God’s kingdom – in spite of the evil made visible by Treasonous Trump and his supporters and promoters.

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